UPDATE: Details from AT&T on Longhorn Network launch on U-verse

ESPN’s Longhorn Network landed its second major national distribution deal Friday, signing on with AT&T’s U-verse system in time for subscribers to see the Longhorns’ game Saturday against Wyoming.

The channel will be available for U-verse customers in Texas with the company’s U100 package and above. Outside of Texas, subscribers to the U450 package will receive the network. LHN is airing on channel 1609 in HD and channel 609 in standard definition.

“We know fans are passionate about watching Longhorn football, and we’re thrilled to offer Longhorn Network to U-verse TV customers in Texas and nationwide,” AT&T executive Jeff Weber said in a release from the company. “This is another example of how we continue to deliver the content customers want.”

AT&T also will release a LHN feed via computers, smartphones and tablets at a later date.

The deal with AT&T, which comes less than a week after the channel’s first anniversary, is the second national deal for Longhorn Network alongside Verizon’s FiOS service, which is available in Texas only in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

David Preschlack, ESPN’s senior vice president for affiliate sales and marketing, said the agreement with AT&T “moves the ball forward for us in a meaningful way.”

“This is a case where you had two willing participants who were interested in getting a deal done. When you have that, good things happen,” he said. “The quality of trhe network is second to none, and any time you get a meaningful bump in distribution, it’s a great thing for all parties involved.”

Preschlack said last week that ESPN was determined to reach agreements that were in line with deals it reached a year ago with its one national distributor, Verizon FiOS, and with a group of smaller cable companies across Texas. He said the AT&T agreement meets that criteria and that ESPN has offered deals along the same lines to other regional and national carrriers.

“We’re clearly more optimistic coming out of this deal,” he said. “We’re happy with the product and with the distribution that we have, but we’re not satisfied. I think this will have a positive impact with other carriage negotiations.

“Getting a deal done with AT&T supports the approach we’re taking with this great product. And I’m hopeful that other distributors will see the light of day and that deals that have been good enough for AT&T and Verizon and smaller mom-and-pop cable companies are good enough for operators who haven’t done a deal yet.”

He said there was nothing new to disclose Friday on the pace of talks with larger entities like Comcast, Time Warner, DirecTV or Dish Network but said ESPN hopes to reach agreements “as quickly as possible. It’s not an ‘if,’ it’s a ‘when.’”

University of Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds said the agreement with AT&T was signed at 3 a.m. Friday, and the Longhorn Network went live on U-verse at about 4:30 a.m.

“I’m not shocked by it,” he said. “I’ve been expecting it, but it’s very pleasant to have it happen. ESPN will continue to work on this (with other carriers) until they get it done, and they will get it done. This is a huge step. It’s not an end result. It’s a step in the right direction.”

AT&T spokesperson Jill Rountree said the company had no comment on the number of subscriber orders or on wait times for service connections.

“We will be installing new customers as quickly as possible,” she said in an e-mail. “Installations will be scheduled on a first-come, first-served basis, and we’re making every effort to accommodate installation requests in a timely manner. We don’t have specific wait times to share, as it varies by market.”

As for other carriers, DirecTV spokesman Robert Mercer said the company has had “intermittent discussions (about LHN), but we have no current plans to add it to our customers’ line-ups. DirecTV appreciates the value to fans of the two Texas and Texas State football games that will be broadcast on the network, but in our effort to keep our customers’ monthly bills at an affordable level, t’s just not reasonable to expect every customer to pay more to get Longhorn Network without having the choice of whether they want it or not. We will continue to evaluate the network, and wish UT and Texas State continued success both on and off the field.”